Thankfulness in the Classroom
Hello, Philomath families! As we approach the holiday season, we would like to practice some thankfulness for our learning community. At Philomath Microschool, we are thankful for our kind and dedicated students, who bring the best of themselves to our virtual classroom every single day. We are thankful for the wonderful families who give our students what they need to excel in their studies. Most of all, we are thankful for the opportunity to help our community engage in creative, student-centered learning this year. From the bottom of our hearts: thank you for all you do.
Here’s what’s been going on in the Philomath virtual school classroom lately:
Our subtraction unit has come to an end and the students are gearing up for their next math challenge: Geometry! They’ll be learning about shapes, their defining and non-defining attributes, and how to find area and perimeter of rectangles. Our older Independent Study students are comparing and converting fractions, decimals, and percents as they work through their 6th grade math curriculum.
In ELA, our virtual school students have been exploring the text features used in informative writing, and are putting together their own informative texts on a topic of their choosing. We’re also enjoying our read-aloud of the chapter book Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. Finally, our older Independent Study ELA students are writing, producing, and performing short plays based on the novels and memoirs they read in the previous quarter.
It’s all about data collection as our budding scientists observe and report on the phases of the moon. In an effort to identify patterns in the movement of the Earth, Moon, and Sun, the students will be spending a lot of time over the next few weeks with their eyes on the sky.
Although we are currently between Social Studies units, as November is Native American Heritage Month, this is an excellent time to discuss the history of Indigenous people in the United States. This website contains a wealth of activities and resources to explore with your children, and the books on this list can provide a good jumping-off point for important discussions now and through the year.
As a reminder, our school will observe the Thanksgiving holiday from Wednesday, November 22nd through Friday, November 24th; there will be no classes, tutoring, or Independent Study sessions during this time. Our upcoming Winter Break will take place from December 23rd through January 7th.
Finally, Philomath will be holding Parent–Teacher Conferences from Monday, December 11th through Wednesday, December 13th. Please reach out to Professor Althoff and Professor Smith by email if you would like to schedule a 20-minute conference time on these days to discuss your child’s progress.
Once again, thank you for being a part of this wonderful learning community, and we hope you have a safe and restful holiday weekend!
